A matchup between the top two teams and the bottom two teams in theory leads to our two best games of the season to this point. It also brings us to the end of the first rotation of games so we’ll reset the scene with updated power rankings, and take a quick look at the weekend ahead for the Summit City Crossover games.
Weekly Recap
Carroll 5 Vipers 4 OT
A quiet third period on the scoring front had plenty of chances for Carroll but a theme started to emerge on why they weren’t converting: they were missing the net. It seemed like Carroll had the better of the play for most of the first period outside of the first couple of minutes and the Viper’s power play that period but at the end of the period shots on goal were 12-4 in favor of the Vipers. Carroll was able to break through at 4:14 of the second period though when Sophomore Viktor Wolff scored his first high school goal when Camden Drexler gloved down a Vipers clearing attempt and delivered a back hand pass to the stick of Wolff who finished the play with a back hand play of his own.
The Vipers would close out the period strong though, finding two late goals to head to the intermission leading 2-1. The first was a wrist shot from Jackson Bertels on the power play, an area the Vipers continue to thrive. Just 1:20 later and it was a heart breaker for Carroll. Brody Burge had a slam dunk goal at the side of the goal but fired it off the post only to see it end up in the back of the Carroll net. Picking the puck up is his own zone, Darcy Koch darted up ice, held onto the puck long enough to cause Max Fiedler to spin out trying to block a shot, leaving Koch a wide open lane right to the front of the net and he made no mistake. It wouldn’t take long for Carroll to get things back on the track though and it started 53 seconds into the third period when Burge got his redemption and scored on a nothing-play from the corner that caught Ben Marques snoozing, deflecting in off his stick. 41 seconds later and Dylan Braun put Carroll back into the lead, capitalizing on a Vipers turnover along the half wall.
Braun would a second goal later in the period, wiring a wrist shot through Marques from the left circle. Now leading 4-2 with just over five minutes to play it looked like Carroll was all set to walk away with the win and improve to 3-0, but the Vipers weren’t done. Bertels got his team back within one on a beautifully placed wrist shot to the far side with 1:25 to play, and then a mere 18 seconds later Koch scored his second of the game to tie it up. After Bertels had a wrister blocked by the stomach of Sam Krauhs, Koch just had to wait for the puck to be dropped and hope it was right next to him. It was and he quickly put it past Carroll goaltender Carson Carteaux. With that we headed to overtime all it took was 47 seconds for Carter Gnau who scored on a wrist shot from the left circle through a Vipers defender, similar to Braun’s second goal.
Leo 3 Homestead 2
The two teams that were 3rd and 4th in the standings coming into the week faced off in the nightcap and the first period was looking promising for Leo. They started off with a lot of control and took the first lead of the game. At 3:11 of the first period JJ Scott got a quick shot off of his stick from below the right face off dot. Sam Schwartz made it a two goal lead for the Lions with 4:19 to play in the first period when he collected a pass off the boards, skated in and scorched a shot past Homestead goalie Alex Dougherty.
Both teams started getting into some penalty trouble in the second period, highlighted by separate 5on3 power plays in the first five minutes of the period. While the Lions survived the 5on3, Homestead was able to score at 4on3 when Drew Brimner deked around Riley Murphy and scored. The Spartans scored again not even a minute later. Andrew Litwinko was able to lace a wrist shot from the high slot past Leo goaltender Xander Mulholland after taking over possession from Dylan Davis. The parade to the penalty box continued for the rest of the period but neither team was able to convert.
Leo scored the critical go-ahead goal to break the tie in the third period at 1:46. The play started with a faceoff win by Colton Calhoun who was able to get the draw back to Jackson Reith at the point. Reith’s shot gave way to a rebound chance for Calhoun who put the puck off the post. Waiting at the back door was Davis who calmly waited for the bouncing puck to settle before putting it into a wide open net. We’d play on with a 3-2 Leo lead until the final two minutes of the period. With exactly two minutes on the clock Leo had a miscommunication on a line change that led to one of the easiest too many men calls you’ll ever see. That gave Homestead’s power play, which was 1-for-4 to that point, a chance to tie the game and give us a second overtime game. The Spartans promptly called a timeout to get organized, which included Dougherty being pulled to make it a 6on4 advantage. Despite some opportunities, Homestead was unable to convert and a roughing penalty to Christopher Adasczik with 1.85 seconds left brought the faceoff all the way back to the Homestead zone, sealing Leo’s second win of the season.
Power Rankings
1.) Carroll Chargers (3-0; 6 pts.): They looked really sharp for the first two games and a lot of the game against the Vipers. Despite the overtime game last night I’m more confident now than I was entering Week One that Carroll is a step above, for now.
2.) Fort Wayne Vipers (1-1-1; 3 pts.): Very strong showing last night and they didn’t even have to rely on the power play which had provided most of their offense through two weeks. The game against Homestead was closer than you’d like but that Leo loss doesn’t look all that bad given how the Lions played last night. This is a group that certainly showed some promise against Carroll and if they can build on that, we could be in for a great 1-2 punch at the top of the league.
3.) Leo Lions (2-1; 4 pts.): Had to do it. After Week One I started considering it and last week vs Carroll was a set back but after last night there was no reason for me to not move them up. JJ Scott has been reliable for them with goals in the first three games, Davis is doing his thing, and they won tonight without Andrew Baumert in net which is important to note. A big game next week against the Vipers will show if they deserve to be even higher but regardless they should be comfortable here until we revisit these rankings in a few weeks.
4.) Homestead Spartans (0-3; 0 pts.): I expected Homestead to be worse than last year. Obviously. Did I expect this? Absolutely not. At the start of the year I was closer to putting Homestead at three than I was at four but it simply hasn’t gone their way so far. The Carroll game got out of hand, they lost the Vipers game on the PK, and then last night they came up short again despite coming back from the 0-2 deficit. They were without Aiden Byler tonight due to a suspension which could make the difference in a one goal game but at this point Leo has gone out and won hockey games, Homestead hasn’t. It’s still early but they have to be fourth right now.
Week 4 Predictions
Check back early next week for this as it’ll be a part of a write-up about this weekend’s crossover games. It was mentioned on the broadcast as a possibility but we won’t be streaming any of the games this weekend FYI.
